We're too slow on offense and we're too slow on defense

Galian Beast

Galian Beast

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This run all day formula only works on teams that can't expose our weaknesses, which is that we're an extremely slow team.

On offense we have no one who can consistently stretch the defense. When Murray is in, he can bowl people over or make nice cuts to gain yards, but he doesn't often run away from players. Both Dunbar and Randle have significantly more speed than he does and Randle isn't really a burner and Dunbar isn't really a halfback.

Dez isn't slow, but he isn't a burner, nor is Williams who is faster, and Williams doesn't have great hands which takes away from being a deep threat. As much as I love Beasley, he doesn't stretch the field. Witten certainly doesn't.

All the talk over the years of being Romo friendly, and we never got someone who could really stop or expose that blitz.

On defense it is even worse. Our secondary is slow as molasses with Carr leading the way. Looking forward to Sean Lee coming back, but he isn't really a speedy guy either. We really needed that from Carter, but I haven't seen that player this year.

We also don't have the speed coming off the edge either.

It sounds crazy to me, but I'm almost ready to say that we need to draft a WR pretty early next year. For the same price or less, I'd rather get AP for two years than sign Murray long term at huge money.

The defense just needs so much work it isn't even funny. I think Marinelli did a good job of hiding the weaknesses of this defense, and he had help from the offense and some poor opponents, but this isn't a playoff caliber defense.

You can't have slow corners AND no pass rush... that doesn't work.
 
Idgit

Idgit

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I'm all for deep speed if we let Harris walk and need to add a player at WR. It'd need to be in the middle rounds, though, because upgrading the defense is a much, much higher priority. Our offense is very productive. Adding stuff just because we don't have it right now isn't the right way to go about it. Just keep it productive and address the defense, which is nowhere near productive enough.

And I don't agree that what the defense needs is 'so much work it's not funny.' We have a fairly consistent blend of talent on that side of the ball across the board. Unfortunately, what we need is a couple of players with truly elite skills. Sean Less is one of those guys. I don't know where we get the others. Maybe we get lucky in the draft. Maybe somebody like Lawrence or Wilcox or McClain or I Don't Know Who develops into one. It'd be easier, actually, if we had a couple impact players there already and all we had to do was find a handful of guys capable of contributing in VFA or the draft.
 
Szczepanik

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I don't think Wilcox is that guy. Wilcox is the typical caliber of a player starting for a team such as Jax.
 
Idgit

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Szczepanik said:
I don't think Wilcox is that guy. Wilcox is the typical caliber of a player starting for a team such as Jax.
Click to expand...

You think so? He's not where he needs to be, but he had a long way to go. I've actually been pretty impressed with Wilcox's improvement this year both in terms of tackling and reading the play when the ball is in front of him. Especially in stringing out and making plays on screens and stretch plays near the sideline. He's always had range, and he really just needs to get better at recognition when he's not able to look into the backfield. But that's understandable for a guy in his position and stage of development.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him develop into a very good all-around S in a year or two. And I've honestly been pretty critical of our S play over the last three seasons or so. This year, it's been quite a bit better than in past seasons. This year, the issue has really been the lack of pressure from the DE's along with some (overly criticizes) lapses from the CBs at times.
 
BAZ

BAZ

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Pushed around the Seahawks that just beat The Eagles, I'll see how a rested Dallas perform before throwing the baby out with the bath water. Keep calm and stay away from the "New thread" button.
 
kazzd58

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I actually think that this year for this team Murray is the best back for this team this year because if we had AP with the way our defense is AP would score so fast that our defense would probaly get exposed even more so it wpuld [probably be a back and forth thing with the teams we play so just feel me for a minute... i see a method to the way we are keeping our defense of the feild with Murray getting 4 yds here 3 yrds there another 4 yds 8 yds then boom a 30 yd run just using as an example more plays eat up more clock the less the defense is exposed so i see to where it works for this team this year ....Now next year imma be the 1st on the AP bandwagon if he is released that may just be unfair AP our Oline and Dez on the same field on the same team... thats almost unfair especially on madden lol
 
The Natural

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The run all day formula can work it just doesnt work when you line up in an obvious running formation and allow the defense to load the box. Need to use passing game/formations to set up the run, not always the other way around.
 
maxdallasfan

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There are a handful of guys with sub-4.3 speed coming out. We need one of them
 
dbonham

dbonham

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Fast guys that are good at football tend to go early in the draft. We've been drafting slow guys that are REALLY good at football in the first round.
 
Future

Future

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Lance Dunbar is the fastest guy on our team and never gets to touch the football.

The issue isn't team speed - at least on offense - it's the lack of ability to use it.
 
JohnsKey19

JohnsKey19

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The Natural said:
The run all day formula can work it just doesnt work when you line up in an obvious running formation and allow the defense to load the box. Need to use passing game/formations to set up the run, not always the other way around.
Click to expand...

I agree. They definitely need to use this approach more as we wind down he season. While we're still productive in the running game, it has become more of a grind. We can still be a predominately running team, but i would definitely alter the overall offensive game-plan some.
 
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